Because it's more than likely TRUE?
[Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists] You’ve probably heard the rumor: The new coronavirus is a bioweapon. Some malicious country‐perhaps the United States, maybe China, depending on who’s talking or tweeting‐purposefully unleashed the virus that causes Covid-19 on the world. You might have also heard that the idea was widely dismissed by disease and defense experts. A good bioweapon, some note, wouldn’t spread as easily and indiscriminately as the new coronavirus does. But for political opportunists and conspiracy theorists, the rising number of Covid-19 infections, the growing ranks of the dead, and the mass disruptions to the daily rhythms of life have created fertile conspiratorial ground.
The Covid-19 bioweapon conspiracy theory has not only failed to be debunked; it even seems to be getting a second wind, and prominent politicians from countries around the world are embracing it. "For a while, it seemed the pushback on the bioweapons narrative from the Washington Post and Foreign Policy was effective," biodefense researcher Filippa Lentzos said. "But in recent days, the narrative seems to be coming back with a vengeance." Current and former government officials, including former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lijian Zhao, and US Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas have given credence to some version of the theory in the last month.
In the United States, Cotton isn’t fully letting up on his suggestion last month that the virus was a Chinese military creation. In a Fox News interview in February, he appeared to suggest just that, before walking back the idea, sort of. (In a series of tweets, he said the bioweapon theory was just one of several hypotheses.) Bioweapon or not, Cotton still believes someone is responsible for the pandemic, someone Chinese. In a statement Thursday announcing that he’d be temporarily closing his Senate office, he called the virus the "Wuhan coronavirus" five times, vowing, "We will hold accountable those who inflicted it on the world." In a later clarifying tweet, he said that, yes, he meant China.
A March 12 article in Britain’s Express tabloid added fuel to fire, reporting that University of Illinois law professor Francis Boyle, who helped draft the legislation that implemented the Biological Weapons Convention in the United States, had identified a "smoking gun" that showed the coronavirus was a bioweapon leaked from a Chinese research lab near Wuhan, the city where the outbreak originated. Boyle reportedly based his theory on a paper on ScienceDirect that noted a "gain-of-function" in the virus that makes it better than other coronaviruses at spreading among humans. But as the Express itself notes in a correction, the research paper Boyle cited does not speculate on what caused the gain-of-function in the virus. "It was therefore incorrect when our article claimed ’the paper suggested Covid-19 has been tampered with,’" the correction notes.
That didn’t stop Manish Tewari, a prominent Indian parliamentarian and spokesperson for the Indian National Congress, the country’s leading opposition party, from re-tweeting the Express article to his more than 380,000 followers, adding his own highly charged twist: the disease outbreak is a terrorist act.
"CoronaVirus is a bioweapon that went [rogue] or that was made to go [rogue]. It is an act of terror," Tewari tweeted on March 12. "International investigation conducted either under auspices of ICJ or ICC is necessary to unearth the truth & bring focus back on eradicating Biological Weapons."
#1
No one in our government wishes to discuss or conduct an in-depth investigation into the precise origins of the virus. Covid-19 is the approved, media term of reference, NOT "Wuhan virus" or "Chinese virus." Why can't we simply get with the prescribed narrative and move on ?
Of course if you alter the approved narrative and declare the virus WMD, then those responsible for Counter-WMD proliferation could possibly (but unlikely) be held foking responsible !
Anyone heard anything from them, those responsible for WMD counter-proliferation? No, me neither.
#4
Physics: Works but there are sparks.
Chemistry: Works but smells really bad.
Biology: Smells really bad but it's just a bunch of bad guesses.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/16/2020 9:21 Comments ||
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#5
It is difficult to prove a negative.
That is one reason why conspiracy theories are so common.
Of course, another reason is that once in a while a seemingly outlandish conspiracy theory turns out to be true.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/16/2020 9:23 Comments ||
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#6
Politicians and the media want to ride this well past the sell by date. They are too stupid to understand that people look around and see it's not The Walking Dead and move on. That's called "ungovernable."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/16/2020 9:32 Comments ||
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#7
Hard to imagine in modern times alright. What with natural born citizens being dispossessed globally disenfranchised with open borders and wave after wave of 'immigrants', easily recognized by the demands for benefits. Then of course there are the compulsively virtue signalling environmentalists who would gladly see us all dead by the own admission. No, no reason to even suspect any kind of foul play here
#8
But for political opportunists and conspiracy theorists, the rising number of Covid-19 infections, the growing ranks of the dead, and the mass disruptions to the daily rhythms of life have created fertile conspiratorial ground.
You're doing it right there, bud. The numbers do not support the hype, but the hype supports the Dump Trump narrative.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/16/2020 10:40 Comments ||
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#9
Ref #8: The numbers do not support the hype, but the hype supports the Dump Trump narrative.
Yes, and the media, to include Fox is doing everything they can to support the hype and gloom.
#10
Said it before. Their timing was bad. They are stuck with it now and will look stupid in July. Which isn't October, though I'd imagine most of them will be surprised to find that out too.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/16/2020 11:33 Comments ||
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#11
Well, we have some problems here:
1) If it's an ordinary, naturally occurring virus then why are we shutting down the entire world when media reports make it look like it's not even as bad as H1N1?
2) Can we believe those media reports or is this the worst thing since bubonic plague?
3) Are we shutting down the entire world because it makes Trump look bad or are we merely succumbing to mass hysteria driven by the MSM?
4) Or is it a bioweapon that could wipe out the human race?
5) How do you know it's not a bioweapon?
Either we've shut down the whole world's economy for a mild case of the sniffles or we're all gonna die.
Any way you look at it, it doesn't look good. Any way you look at it, somebody is feeding us a load of crap.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/16/2020 13:12 Comments ||
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#12
Can't go to church. Can't go to a bar. Can't go to Disneyland (not that I'd want to). Can't buy a frickin' roll of toilet paper. People being laid off from work and the stock market's fallen off a cliff.
So far it looks like the cure is a helluva lot worse than the disease. Doctor, I think you're a quack.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/16/2020 13:20 Comments ||
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#13
Either we've shut down the whole world's economy for a mild case of the sniffles or we're all gonna die.
If the former, this is a good dress rehearsal for the real thing. And if people get in the habit of stocking several weeks worth of supplies going forward, we’ll be more resilient for everything from tornados to job loss as well, so overall a good thing despite the hardships if this is a false alarm. Though I admit this is especially hard on our extraverts — after one weekend of carefully avoiding the outside world, Mr. Wife is bouncing off the walls, poor man.
#16
Because it IS a bioweapon. It wasn't released deliberately probably but that doesn't make it any less a man made engineered virus that does not occur in nature in this form. We really need people who stand next to reporters with a 12 gauge and then they say something so utterly stupid that everyone knows that it's not true or worthless, *BOOM* on screen education.
#20
Italy's death rate is nearly 8%; Iran almost 6%.
South Korea, where the rate of reported infections has flattened, has a bit less than a 1% death rate.
[doing the math at the Johns Hopkins site]
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/16/2020 18:00 Comments ||
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#21
Italy's fatal rate is almost certainly less than 8% because the testing is not as widespread as in SKor and thus there are many diagnosed cases in Italy.
Iran doesn't provide info on how many tests they do but it is almost certainly far less than SKor and probably less than Italy. I have hypothesized that the many years of brutal air pollution in Iran have weakened the lungs of much of the population leaving them more vulnerable to the virus but that is just a hypothesis.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/16/2020 18:25 Comments ||
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#22
In Italy patients are triaged.
Death rates are only relatively low if ICU care is available to anyone in need.
[Medium.com] Fresh air, sunlight and improvised face masks seemed to work a century ago; and they might help us now.
by Richard Hobday
When new, virulent diseases emerge, such SARS and Covid-19, the race begins to find new vaccines and treatments for those affected. As the current crisis unfolds, governments are enforcing quarantine and isolation, and public gatherings are being discouraged. Health officials took the same approach 100 years ago, when influenza was spreading around the world. The results were mixed. But records from the 1918 pandemic suggest one technique for dealing with influenza ‐ little-known today ‐ was effective. Some hard-won experience from the greatest pandemic in recorded history could help us in the weeks and months ahead.
Put simply, medics found that severely ill flu patients nursed outdoors recovered better than those treated indoors. A combination of fresh air and sunlight seems to have prevented deaths among patients; and infections among medical staff.[1] There is scientific support for this. Research shows that outdoor air is a natural disinfectant. Fresh air can kill the flu virus and other harmful germs. Equally, sunlight is germicidal and there is now evidence it can kill the flu virus.
`Open-Air’ Treatment in 1918.
During the great pandemic, two of the worst places to be were military barracks and troop-ships. Overcrowding and bad ventilation put soldiers and sailors at high risk of catching influenza and the other infections that often followed it.[2,3] As with the current Covid-19 outbreak, most of the victims of so-called `Spanish flu’ did not die from influenza: they died of pneumonia and other complications.
When the influenza pandemic reached the East coast of the United States in 1918, the city of Boston was particularly badly hit. So the State Guard set up an emergency hospital. They took in the worst cases among sailors on ships in Boston harbour. The hospital’s medical officer had noticed the most seriously ill sailors had been in badly-ventilated spaces. So he gave them as much fresh air as possible by putting them in tents. And in good weather they were taken out of their tents and put in the sun. At this time, it was common practice to put sick soldiers outdoors. Open-air therapy, as it was known, was widely used on casualties from the Western Front. And it became the treatment of choice for another common and often deadly respiratory infection of the time; tuberculosis.
Patients were put outside in their beds to breathe fresh outdoor air. Or they were nursed in cross-ventilated wards with the windows open day and night. The open-air regimen remained popular until antibiotics replaced it in the 1950s.
#1
I believe it was TB or consumption back many years ago where treatment in sanitariums was to keep the ill outside. Pneumonia killed most. Those were the days several years after 1918 I believe. These places still are remembered many years after closure. Management techniques were quite varied and little or no monitoring. Reminds me; Back in the day this caused people to commit suicide upon seeing or hearing this tune.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/16/2020 10:33 Comments ||
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#7
So all this hand-wringing about the homeless being the most vulnerable is hogwash; they will recover on their own, as long as a wind blows under the bridge in Brooklyn.
#11
I recall fondly my 11th grade English Lit teacher, a Brit naked Sir Giles Sutton, tell us that in the Bards epic, the joke was that the term nunnery was common speak for brothel!
#13
ahhh...I was awonderin' what kind of school you went to. Nevermind
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/16/2020 12:38 Comments ||
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#14
Might be time to quarantine the TeeVee.
That's the best idea I've heard.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/16/2020 13:28 Comments ||
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#15
Thanks TW. I have been watching the hand-wringers/bed-wetters here in Seattlestan do EVERYTHING for the homeless; latest is to issue executive order to ban evictions for renters that cannot pay their rent due to job loss. No mention of home-owners who can't pay their mortgage because of job loss, nor landlords that get the rentals foreclosed because of non payment.
Sorry, to damn many freeloaders here; if they all fell over dead my only worry would be about wind direction to ensure I had my car windows closed if I ever have to pass thru the 'Scat Francisco on the Sound.'
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/16/2020 19:44 Comments ||
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#17
What are th odds that the hospitals were less than sanitary back then and thats why the outside was preferable? The article is written by an expert so I'm probably wrong but that seems like it should be a factor.
#18
"Eccentric? Not naked Giles Sutton,
Who, waving a nice leg of mutton,
Encouraged his pipers
In school tartan diapers
To 'bugger the bug!'" Cue tut-tuttin'.
#19
What are th odds that the hospitals were less than sanitary back then and thats why the outside was preferable?
They knew about sanitation, and hygiene was a fad by the 1920s — all those white subway tiled kitchens and such. The housing of the poor was still dank, dark, pestilent, and overcrowded, but hospital nurses were trained to create hygienic surroundings for well-scrubbed patients.
[CALCALISTECH] Nobel laureate and Stanford professor Michael Levitt unexpectedly became a reassuring figure in China at the peak of the coronavirus ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... pandemic. Now he assures Israelis: statistics show the virus is on a downturn.
Nobel laureate Michael Levitt, an American-British-Israeli biophysicist who teaches structural biology at Stanford University and spends much of his time in Tel Aviv, unexpectedly became a household name in China, offering the public reassurance during the peak of the country’s coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. Levitt did not discover a treatment or a cure, just did what he does best: crunched the numbers. The statistics led him to the conclusion that, contrary to the grim forecasts being branded about, the spread of the virus will come to a halt.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Based on these statistics, Levitt said, he concluded that many people are just naturally immune to the virus.
The Wuhan virus is still adapting as a human pathogen. Adaptive radiation and subsequent competition between subspecies should be expected.
So, alternatively, these people might have survived an infection by a Wuhan subspecies that has evolved to be highly contagious and asympthomatic and thus acquired a measure of immunity.
If people were screened not only for viral RNA but also for antibodies this hypothesis could be confirmed or falsified.
SKor has pretty good data as they tested over 200k people.
Also I agree that in SKor the number of new cases per day is now less than the number of people discharged per day, which is great news.
But that is not true in the US or France or Italy or Spain.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/16/2020 15:33 Comments ||
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#11
^Because of the time course, it has to run it's time course. SKors got it earlier (probably immediately after China), and it run its time course. USA got it later.
Italy, nobody gets Italy, the only reasonable theory: they have limited med equipment & personnel.
#12
Also I agree that in SKor the number of new cases per day is now less than the number of people discharged per day, which is great news.
Hard to quantify a disease that transcends regional boundaries. Are deaders counted in the ADT numbers, or as transfers to the morgue. Do those that die at home get counted?
How about the instate 50k US troops? Is that population monitored or only reported when they rotate home as DoD numbers?
All the numbers are exclusive or made up but trending bad.
#13
But the silver lining is that Iran is in third place.
Should I feel bad for pointing that out?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/16/2020 18:02 Comments ||
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#14
A second (virus after) strategy or task force should be running parallel to any current anti-Covid-19 effort. Not sure how this does not fall within the sphere of WMD/chemical-biological counter proliferation. Still hearing virtually nothing from the intelligence community. That would be the people whose job it is 'to protect us from the threat of WMD proliferation.'
Yes, 9/11 redux. Same-same, no heads lining the Memorial Bridge rail.
[NOQReport] Today, Sunday, is a National Day of Prayer to help fight the Wuhan coronavirus. Those who do not have faith (and even some who do) have been ridiculing the President and those who adhere to Judeo-Christian faiths ever since he announced on Friday that we should pray because we are a nation that "has looked to God for protection and strength in times like these."
He is absolutely correct on both major points. We have historically been a nation that has turned to God to help us through our troubles and it can be an effective way to fight not only the coronavirus, but also the despair that has been flooding over people as a result of the pandemic’s rise.
"As we unite in prayer, we are reminded that there is no burden too heavy for God to lift or for this country to bear with His help. Luke 1:37 promises that ’For with God nothing shall be impossible,’ and those words are just as true today as they have ever been," President Trump said in his proclamation.
This is something Americans should take very seriously. Many if not most churches will not be holding services today, opting instead for streaming sermons or no gatherings at all. Many Americans only pray on Sunday, and right now we desperately need as many Americans praying as possible.
[TheBurningPlatform] I’ve watched it morph from a 2-4 day period of infection, to a 2 week, to a 27 day, to a 44 day period since this stuff first came about. And that’s from the professionals at CDC and WHO who spend tens of billions of dollars every year in order to prevent these things from spreading.
I see that there are 22 inbound flights from China arriving in the US today.
I remember seeing the instagrams of the Asiatics dropping like flies and laying in pools of blood two months ago but we haven’t seen anything like that anywhere else.
The US reported its first case 11 days before the Italians claimed one and for some odd reason they are losing 15 times as many people as we are and not one person has offered any kind of explanation for the disparity between the two countries and if anything, Italy took far more stringent methods to deal with this problem. At least they cut off flights from China.
I have watched a large portion of my own community as well as the rest of America descend into some consumer driven madness that sends them out into the (supposedly) virus filled world at large to do battle over toilet paper.
I’ve talked to people at three different hospitals that have all asked the same question, where the hell are all the people with coronavirus?
I’ve seen countries so filthy and backward that people shit in the streets, places like Equatorial Africa, India and Pakistan go about their business seemingly unaffected by it.
I’ve heard the experts tell me so many different versions of the same story you’d think it was a live version of the blind men and the elephant.
It’s bullshit. It’s just another flu. There’s no AIDS or SARS in it, it isn’t going to fill up the hospital corridors with dead bodies left unattended and the world will continue on. The economic unwind of this shit show is an entirely different latter and was- almost certainly- the prime motivator in turning this rather innocuous strain of virus into a worldwide crisis of epic proportions to explain away where all the non-existent money went.
Aaaaaand, it’s gone.
You want to protect yourself, I get it, prepare, stay frosty and limit your contacts for the next year or so and you may dodge it completely. Of course there may be another just around the corner, so that strategy while efficacious seems wildly overcautious.
We all die, that’s the secret to life.
You want to live in fear or do you want to take your chances with the time you’ve been given on a precious piece of galactic real estate?
There’s no AIDS or SARS in it, it isn’t going to fill up the hospital corridors with dead bodies left unattended and the world will continue on. The economic unwind of this shit show is an entirely different latter and was- almost certainly- the prime motivator in turning this rather innocuous strain of virus into a worldwide crisis of epic proportions to explain away where all the non-existent money went.
[The Hill] Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) called for introducing a universal basic income (UBI) of $1,000 a month until coronavirus "no longer presents a public health emergency."
"Most Americans don't have that safety emergency bank account even for a short term, what to speak of if you're talking about weeks, or in this case people are looking at potentially months," Gabbard said in an interview on Hill.TV.
Her proposal, H.R. 897, would give a UBI of $1,000 per month to all adult Americans "until COVID-19 no longer presents a public health emergency."
The idea of a UBI of $1,000 a month was made popular by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who made the program a centerpiece of his campaign.
Coronavirus has killed at least 40 Americans and there are more than 1,700 cases nationwide as of Friday morning, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The spread of the virus has sparked wide concerns about the economy, leading to the cancellation of numerous events and conferences.
Gabbard remains in the presidential though her campaign is widely seen as unviable. Former Vice President Joe Biden has built a wide lead in the delegate count for the Democratic nomination followed by his chief rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
#3
How bout we expropriate all money from people who donate to the Tubby Flabbard campaign? They obviously don't know $100 bills are for lighting cigars...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/16/2020 9:24 Comments ||
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#4
Payroll tax eats, what, 9% of your paycheck? For an $18/hr full-time employee that amounts to over $250 per month; more like $500 for the average American.
#5
As awful as the media is, I get a kick out of how every picture they show of her highlites how bad her complexion is even under her industrial strength makeup.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/16/2020 11:06 Comments ||
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#6
As bad on 2A as all other dems. As commie on economy as Boiney. But beloved because she promises to shut down the neocons. Which she of course cannot.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/16/2020 11:09 Comments ||
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#10
Mitt Romney has burnt his bridges with President Trump and the Senate Republicans... and the Democrats aren’t too fond of him, either. He has a great deal of work to do if he wants anything he says to become more than the usual political kabuki.
[Guns America] The venerable Smith & Wesson J-frame may well be the most prolific revolver ever made. The original J-frame was introduced at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in 1950. At the conference, the Smith & Wesson representatives asked the chiefs to vote to name the new little wheelgun. Based on the votes, Smith christened the new revolver as the Chiefs Special. From that simple beginning, the J-frame line has been expanded to over 31 models in four different calibers.
The Chiefs Special, later renamed the Model 36, was a traditional double-action revolver with an exposed hammer. In 1952, Smith introduced the Centennial model that featured a concealed hammer and a grip safety. The Centennial was a double-action only pistol that was ideal for pocket carry, a method that was very popular in the 1950s. Then, in 1955, Smith introduced the Bodyguard. The Bodyguard featured a distinctive humpback that shrouded the hammer spur. The design allowed the Bodyguard to be cocked for single-action fire while still being suitable for pocket carry. To some, it was the best of both worlds. Interestingly the first model of the Bodyguard series featured an alloy frame. In 1959, based on a request from the Massachusetts State Police, Smith introduced the all-steel Model 49.
The appearance of the humpback Bodyguard was never as sexy as the Centennial or as classic as the Model 36 Chiefs Special. In recent years, the 442/642 series of Centennials has become the star of the line. However, the Bodyguard still has a loyal following. While the Model 38 was discontinued in 1999, production of the Bodyguard continued with the Model 638 and the Model 649 that is now chambered in .357 Magnum. We recently received Model 638 for evaluation.
[World Tribune] A top official in British intelligence intimated that the UK assisted in the Obama administration’s investigation into alleged Trump-Russia collusion during the 2016 election, former Trump administration deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland said.
McFarland, who served as national security adviser Michael Flynn’s deputy for the first four months of the Trump administration, told Just the News that as Trump was preparing to take office in January 2017 she was contacted by British Deputy National Security Adviser Patrick "Paddy" McGuinness.
The contact occurred around same time the bogus Christopher Steele dossier was leaked to the U.S. media, the Just the News report noted.
McGuinness said that the British and American intelligence communities work so closely together that "it’s often difficult to see where one ends and the other begins," McFarland recalled during an interview with the John Solomon Reports podcast.
At the time McFarland said she took the comment to be an obvious reassurance of the famously close relationship between U.S. and UK intelligence services. But "in retrospect, I think it was a signal that their former agent was working very closely with our intelligence agencies," McFarland now says.
"My conclusion was that they had been working closely with the intelligence officials in the Obama administration," McFarland said.
Late last month, in an interview with Just the News, Flynn defense attorney Sidney Powell confirmed that McFarland was contacted by McGuinness. Powell said that Flynn had received a parallel communique from Britain’s national security adviser which called into question Steele’s credibility within British intelligence circles.
#1
"it’s often difficult to see where one ends and the other begins,"
Thank you Paddy. We might have never known. Steele's old office within near walking distance of Vauxhall Cross, I'm sure no one gave it a second thought.
#3
We are overdue to punish the shit out of UK and Oz intelligence for their involvement in this. IV said it before, gouge out the Five Eyes. For starters we should tell MI6 no coordination until you hand Steele over to the US for interrogation and subsequent treatment outside of Constitutional norms. Just cut Oz off. They don't contribute anything worthwhile anyway.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/16/2020 8:45 Comments ||
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#4
Appears to be a circumvention or work-around of EO-12333, the prohibition regarding intelligence collection targeted at US citizens.
#6
Any I the only one that points out overt treason? Working with another nation to overthrow a branch of our government. Pretty obvious if you think about it.
Flashing back to when Steele disappeared before we knew his name. Then there was GCHQ chief Robert Hannigan quitting like a bad case of exposed herpes.
#7
/\ Yes, you noticed the Robert Hannigan departure as well. I'm sure his departure included a burgeoning folder of non-disclosure agreements followed by a hefty golden parachute.
Kurt Time at Town Hall
here’s nothing like a hideous pandemic to reaffirm what we always knew...
Communists are terrible.
Our establishment is terrible.
Our media is terrible.
Democrats are terrible.
Never Trumpers are terrible.
Let’s start with the bat soup-slurpin’ version of Bernie Sanders’s favorite ideology, the Red Chinese. Their bizarre fetish for gobbling up pangolins and other appalling foods led to this outbreak, as if eating weird stuff was ever going to lead to anything good. Anyway, their secrecy, ineptitude and general commie incompetence led to it getting all out of control. Now they are blaming America for it, as if Trump went over to the far east and started stuffing rodents, marsupials and varmints down their gullets.
Turns out the Chinese and their slave labor fake capitalism were just too attractive to our globalist betters, who decided that it would be super-smart to outsource all sorts of necessary stuff to a committed enemy of the United States. But then, at heart, the lickspittle Wall Street types and the Bain Brigades starring the likes of Mitt Romney don’t truly believe that America still exists in a Westphalian nation-state paradigm. After all, doesn’t everyone from everywhere get along so swimmingly over cocktails and crudités in Davos? So when the ChiComs started sounding off maybe not letting us have any of the drugs we need, we dug a bit deeper and found out that the Bush/Clinton/BushAgain/Obama era geniuses who keep telling us how smart they are let America transfer our drug-making, mask-making, and all-sorts-of-other-stuff-we-really-really-need-making to our enemy. As the hep kids once said, "Smooth move, Ex-Lax," except Ex-Lax is probably now made in Wuhan, and that’s a problem considering what our establishment is so manifestly full of.
So now we have Chinese officials in official Chinese newspapers claiming that the U.S. Army created and spread the Chinese coronavirus, which is ridiculous because today’s Army is focused on important tasks like transgender diversity day awareness training stand-downs and making sure that drill sergeants aren’t mean to the puffy new recruits.
But our garbage media ‐ sorry garbage, since you were at least useful at one point ‐ is eager to parrot the Peking line. Blaming the ChiComs for the ChiComs’s failure is now xenophobic
...Key Democrats weighed in on this important issue. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced that not eating Chinese food is racist, but she did not confront the fact that eating General Tsao’s chicken is militarist. She needs to get more woke. Not-Senile Joe needs to be woken up. His big speech about his big virus plan focused on us not being racist by accurately pointing out the disease’s origins, which seems like a super-important consideration to the people hacking their lungs out.
...The Democrats’ shiny new meme was that Donald Trump wasted the time China bought us with its dissembling and incompetence. What was Trump doing at that time? Dealing with being impeached for allegedly seeking an explanation about why the exotic dancer-diddling and wacky dust-inhaling scion of the presumptive Democrat nominee was getting paid off to the tune of $83K a month by foreign corruptocrats. At least Hoover Biden’s safe. If that virus wanders into his nostrils it’ll OD harder than a pal of Democrat Andrew Gillum at a wedding after-party.
...Yeah, Trump is responsible for the government’s alleged botching of the test kit thing. The answer is, of course, to give all power over health care to the government because reasons and are you kidding me? Now, if you aren’t tested and show symptoms, you should self-quarantine. And if you are tested and come out positive, you should self-quarantine. So, if you are showing symptoms, but test negative, you should go cough on people and lick door handles?
...And no one does "staying away from other people" and "having some loathsome infection" better than the Never Trumpers. If there is one thing the friendless Trump Derangement Syndrome suffers understand, it’s isolation. Ahoy mateys, there’ll be no more cruises for you, you scurvy vermin. These invertebrate losers weighed in ‐ and most of them sure know from weighing ‐ on the latest developments, pronouncing this the thing that finally gets Trump.
...The Chinese coronavirus pandemic, like Trump himself, has the amazing ability to cause the masks to fall and the truth to come out. Communists, our establishment, the media, Democrats and Never Trumpers have managed to all made fools of themselves. You really gotta Wu-hand it to them.
#1
I was on of six adults all over 65 who went out to dinner last night. My children were horrified. The restaurant was nearly empty. Traffic was much lighter than usual for a Sunday night.
Maybe I should panic. My North Texas County has three cases of presumptive COVID-2019.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/16/2020 9:21 Comments ||
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#2
Kurt at the top of his game. "Smooth move, Ex-Lax!" - nice.
Could it be that we have reached - possibly, just maybe - an inflection point re. popular awareness and rejection of our elites' foolish 30+ year long embrace of China?
#3
I just spoke with my 94-year old mother (which suggests that I’ll be hanging around the Burg for a looooong time to come!), who informed me they are in lockdown at the retirement home — all activities cancelled, no parties in their rooms, no outside visitors... but they all meet for dinner in the dining room as usual for the duration. It just started today and she is already bored, though she has plenty of books and the classics station on the stereo. And Mama is a social introvert. If Mr. Wife is any example, the extroverts among them must be bouncing off the walls.
#5
I love the sarcasm and big words and perfect diction! Was just watching press conference and we should treat it like aids!
1. No butt sex
2. please use clean needles and know your drug dealer like yourself sun tzu!
3.Get your hookers tested be they male or female at the drive through covid sites!
4. DO not stand as close as they do at presidential press conferences or sit that close!
5.Do not ever wait for the government to make up paperwork that says protective gear like an n95 mask is ok to wear and reduce spread!
6.Well ya get the point! Love sarcasm and remain CLAM!
The Bavarian government watered down the measures because Merkel isn't quite ready yet. Now restaurants may open for lunch, some non-essential businesses like hairdressers are allowed to operate.
Paris just ordered a total lock down (Spain and Austria already did), and of course Germany will follow in a couple of days. This stupid waiting just wastes time and credibility.
Only yesterday politicians affirmed that people would not be confined to their homes except for grocery shopping, today they added a "not yet". This is how you lose trust.
Small businesses were told that the state would help. Yeah right. They're directed to a designated bank for getting loans: with 8% interests! How are they going to pay this back?
I also will probably change my nick from European Conservative to Bavarian Conservative. The EU is useless when shit hits the fan. We needed a common serious response weeks ago, we needed to help Italy, and now Italy relies on the help of... China (face masks etc.).
The lack of decisive response will cause thousands of deaths and trillions of losses. F*** idiots.
Sorry for venting, I have slept 4 hours in 3 days.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/16/2020 20:13 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Not a problem, EC..errr...BC.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/16/2020 20:33 Comments ||
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#9
Technically, this is Rantburg, not Ventburg, but I'm good with it.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/16/2020 20:40 Comments ||
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#10
For some reason these feels like societal Chemotherapy. Weak members of society (elderly, homeless probably refugees) die. Weak companies can't survive the economic disruption. Not saying this is a good thing, but I suspect there are some that would.
#13
We must politically and economically unite against this monster and starve it.
Yea verily. A consummation devoutly to be wished.
1) bring onshore all manufacture of APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients)
2) keep Trump's tariffs -- no relaxation -- on Chinese-made garbage. We didn't need it and won't miss it.
3) rebuild our domestic manufacturing base, with an emphasis on CRAFTSMANSHIP. Rediscover our European ethos of kraft, of producing exquisite quality rather than mass-market quantity. For everything, be it hand tools or beer or home furnishings or steel or pharmaceuticals or high-quality entertainment and cultural products. KILL THE CULTURE OF JUNK.
Summary of #1-3: Less stuff. Better stuff. Higher culture. And zero dependence on China.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Medium.com] Fresh air, sunlight and improvised face masks seemed to work a century ago; and they might help us now.
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
[World Tribune] A top official in British intelligence intimated that the UK assisted in the Obama administration’s investigation into alleged Trump-Russia collusion during the 2016 election, former Trump administration deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland said.
